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All IPCC definitions taken from Climate Change 2007: The Physical Science Basis. Working Group I Contribution to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Annex I, Glossary, pp. 941-954. Cambridge University Press.

Missing logic of Australian PM's denial of climate change link to bushfires

Risk of Amazon rainforest dieback higher than IPCC projects

Solar switch forces utilities to shift priorities

The lesson of Hurricane Sandy: pay now, not later

What would happen without the Amazon?

Australian bushfires fan global warming debate

Australia has been battling unseasonably bad bushfires for weeks. The flames have destroyed hundreds of homes - and have also intensified a political debate about whether there is a link with global warming.

B.C. firm looks at sewers to power sustainable energy shift

Lynn Mueller, head of International Wastewater Systems, has a keeninterest in sewers.

More specifically, he is obsessed with the hot water people flush down their drains and figuring out ways to recycle all that heat to be used again as energy for building systems — heating, air conditioning and hot water.

“A lot of people probably dream about other things than (sewage heat recovery), but I’ve been thinking about it for a long time,” Mueller told The Sun.

Recycling energy from buildings is becoming de rigueur in sustainable construction.

Bill to block EPA greenhouse gas emissions rules

Two coal state lawmakers -- a Republican House member and a Democratic senator -- introduced legislation on Monday that would kneecap Environmental Protection Agency regulation of greenhouse gas pollution from new coal-fired power plants.

The proposed legislation comes from Rep. Ed Whitfield (R-Ky.), chairman of the Energy and Power Subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Whitman said he "has been working closely" on the measure with Democratic West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, who "will spearhead the legislation" in the Senate. The pair unveiled the plan in a press release on Monday afternoon.

The EPA last month issued new draft rules that would limit emissions from new power plants. The limits would mean that no new coal plants could be built unless they use technology to capture and store carbon emissions.

Ethiopia opens Africa's largest wind farm

Africa's biggest wind farm began production in Ethiopia on Saturday, aiding efforts to diversify electricity generation from hydropower plants and help the country become a major regional exporter of energy.

The Horn of Africa country - plagued by frequent blackouts - plans to boost generating capacity from 2,000 MW to 10,000 MW within the next three to five years, much of it coming from the 6,000 MW Grand Renaissance Dam under construction on the Nile.

The plan also consists of raising wind power generation to more than 800 MW and geothermal capacity to less than 100 MW.

EU environment ministers call for action on climate policy

Thirteen European environment ministers urged the European Union on Monday to adopt ambitious energy and climate goals for 2030 or risk falling behind the rest of the world.

In a 40-page document released in Brussels, they also called on the 28-nation bloc to reform the EU's Emissions Trading System (ETS) and said environmental action need not clash with efforts to limit energy prices.

On the contrary, some EU nations with high levels of renewable energy have relatively low energy prices and are also benefiting from exporting renewable technology, they said.

Missing logic of Australian PM's denial of climate change link to bushfires

Imagine a teacher who wanders into a classroom full of five-year-olds, sits down, pulls out a packet of cigarettes and starts to smoke them, exhaling puffs of cancer-inducing haze that waft into the little kids' faces.

Remember Sandy? Storms like that could become the new normal

One year ago, when the largest Atlantic hurricane in recorded history swept up the East Coast and collided with a nor'easter, the two massive weather events morphed into a superstorm. Sandy made landfall in New York harbor during a full moon—when the tides are highest—and caused a massive storm swell that flooded much of the region. It was dubbed a Frankenstorm, a Snor'eastercane, the Katrina of New Jersey.

By the time Sandy ran its course, it had created a disaster scenario better than anything Hollywood could dream up. But Sandy wasn't fiction—and climate models show that within the next hundred years Sandy-sized storms could even become the new norm.

Risk of Amazon rainforest dieback higher than IPCC projects

A new study suggests the southern portion of the Amazon rainforest is at a much higher risk of dieback due to climate change than projections made in the latest report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. If severe enough, the loss of rainforest could cause the release of large volumes of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. It could also disrupt plant and animal communities in one of the regions of highest biodiversity in the world.

Solar switch forces utilities to shift priorities

Sitting on a rooftop, soaking up sun, the humble solar panel may not look like a threat to a multibillion-dollar industry.

But some electric utility executives say it is. They even have a name for the nightmare scenario solar could create - the "death spiral."

They fear solar's rapid spread across homes and businesses, combined with the increasing efficiency of modern buildings and appliances, could slowly erode the utilities' ability to grow. California utilities get paid based on the value of the assets they own - the transmission lines, substations and wires. As more businesses and homeowners generate their own electricity, the utilities won't need to add as many of those assets as before.

The lesson of Hurricane Sandy: pay now, not later

One year ago, on October 29,superstorm Sandy swamped New York City and New Jersey. Although authorities did a terrific job of evacuating people, they were helpless against Sandy’s record-high storm surge. Today the city and its neighboring state are still trying to recover, and the struggles raise a stark lesson that coastal communities all along the U.S. East Coast and Gulf Coast must take to heart: spending money, even lots of money, to protect against storms is far cheaper than fixing damage and rebuilding afterward.

Most of us have learned this lesson the hard way at some point, summed up in the tag line of an old commercial about the wisdom of getting a regular, inexpensive oil change for your car instead of delaying and creating a bigger, more expensive engine problem: “You can pay me now, or you can pay me later.” In 2007 New York released PlaNYC, a blueprint for making the city sustainable for decades, including adaptation to climate change. Work on a few of the recommendations began, but many went unfunded. In 2009 a group of scientist convened by the city, the New York City Panel on Climate Change (NPCC), published a report saying the city should plan for up to two feet of sea level rise by 2100 as well as significant storm surges. Again, little work followed.

Comments

Nice Guardian article "Missing logic of Australian PM's denial" commenting the latest taking point sported by Tony Abbott. I found especially funny (and accurate) this picture in the comment thread therein. It would be an excellent toon and Abbott's description at the same time. Clearly, our PM has reached a new "Moncktonian" low, becase - like Monckton - he just debunks himself.

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